Katie McGrath: Film bosses think I’m British but it’s good not to be in the wee Irish

JURASSIC World star Katie McGrath claims her big screen success has nothing to do with Celtic charm — as no one in Hollywood believes she’s Irish.

The Wicklow actress is hot property after stunning audiences with a breathtaking performance in the billion-dollar dino blockbuster — officially the third highest grossing movie of all time.

And with Tinseltown scrambling to work with her, she’s landed her own US TV series, Slasher, and scooped a starring role alongside Jude Law, Eric Bana and Charlie Hunnam in Guy Ritchie’s forthcoming Camelot epic, Knights of the Roundtable. But according to the 31-year-old, industry execs and moviemakers always falsely assume she’s British.

She said: “It seems to come as a big surprise when I tell them, ‘Nope, not from London, I’m from Wicklow.’ They’re like, ‘Get outta here.’ It happens all the time.

“And I have people asking me, ‘Do you play on your Irishness over in Hollywood? They love the Irish there.’ And while I’m sure it’s an advantage for some actors, it’s never, ever played any part for me.“I think it’s because in all my work, I usually play British and I live in London. They just presume that’s where I’m from.

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“Maybe it’s worked in my favour, though. Some actors, when they come to LA, find themselves pigeonholed and put into that box. You know, the wee Irish box and it’s difficult to break away. I haven’t had to contend with that.”

While the assumption may have landed McGrath regal parts in Madonna’s royal directorial debut, WE and NBC’s big budget retelling of Dracula — with once rumoured squeeze Jonathan Rhys Meyers — the star has found herself shut out of local productions.

She said: “I’ve never played Irish so I think the same thing is happening with the industry in Ireland too. They think I’m British as well and I’d love to work at home.

“It’s something I’d always love to do but I’ve never been that lucky.”

Working in the costume department on The Tudors before getting her big break as evil sorceress Morgana in BBC’s fantasy series, Merlin, the former Trinity student has watched her star swiftly ascend thanks to eye-catching turns in Channel 4’s medieval saga Labyrinth and playing Princess Margaret in a mini-series biopic of Queen Elizabeth.

But nothing could have prepared Katie for the phenomenal response to Jurassic World.

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She laughed: “People go nuts. They go absolutely nuts for this movie and rightly so because it’s absolutely huge. In every sense.

“When I told my friends I got the part, they went crazy. They were constantly singing the theme tune. I had one friend who would stop everybody on the street and say, ‘Listen, do you know she’s in the new Jurassic Park! Everyone, she’s in the new Jurassic Park!’ It was hilarious.”

While auditioning for the blockbuster, McGrath initially scoffed at having any chance of a part.

She said: “I’d flown out to LA to meet with casting and then flown back to London. Then had a Skype chat with the director, all went perfectly lovely but there wasn’t a hope in the world I’d get it. I was simply chalking it up to experience.

“You never think you’re going to get a job like that. It’s dinosaurs, it’s Jurassic Park. They’re not going to cast me.

And while it’s all done with special effects, the star found the scenes petrifying. She said: “You’re screaming and running away from nothing and you’re horrified. But it’s all in your head, it’s fabulous.

“Thankfully, it’s not just you, though. There are 600 extras screaming as well, crew and everything — that spirit of all of you doing it at the same time. You’re vibing off each other.

“You’re not on your own in a box trying to figure it out.”

Winning the coveted role was all the more significant for Katie after Dracula with Rhys Meyers and fellow Irish actress Victoria Smurfit was axed after just once season.

Struck by fear and doubt, she questioned her future in the industry. She revealed: “It broke me. I was so sad. Dracula had such potential to be wonderful. You work so hard, put your life and soul into it and then it’s over. Done. I found that difficult.

“We were like a family. You only get a job like that once every ten, 20 years. I was lucky I even got a job like that at all.

“And you think you’ll never work again. Everything is awful. Sometimes it takes my brother to point out, ‘C’mon, you’ve never been out of work.’ And I say, ‘No, I know I will be now.’ And he’s like, ‘You need to stop panicking. You always land on your feet.’”

Currently working in Canada on Slasher, a slick horror series where she plays a young woman returning to a small town years after the brutal murder of her parents, Katie recently wrapped on Knights of the Roundtable in Wales this summer.

And the actress confessed she was flustered by her hunky A-list co-stars. She giggled: “They’re all so delicious and I‘m standing around looking at them, thinking, ‘This is what I’m getting paid for.’

“I’m chatting there with Jude Law, while Eric Bana is changing in front me and it’s one of those moments when you click in your head and think, ‘Whoa, this is strange. What is actually happening here?’”

But Katie knows she has Jurassic World to thank for her superstar surrounds. She said: “It’s great. I’m getting into rooms on another level because of Jurassic I literally wouldn’t have a year ago. Once one big studio has said yes, it’s easier for others to say yes.”